ON CAPE COD THE MOVE TO ASSISTED LIVING CREATES GOOD LISTINGS
During yesterday's MLS Tour in Yarmouth, here on Cape Cod, I was once again reminded how the move to assisted living creates good listings for all of us. Of the twelve listings on tour, four were the result of a move to assisted living.
An extended stay in one of the great assisted living facilities here on Cape Cod is fairly expensive, whether the facility is in Yarmouth or the neighboring towns of Barnstable, Dennis, Harwich Brewster, Chatham or Orleans, averaging $50,000 to $60,000 per year. Someone who can afford this generally has a home that is fairly nice and reasonably well maintained.
Here are some quick observations of what we saw on the tour.
Each of the properties we looked at were priced somewhat within the realm of being reasonable - figuring the normal list to sell spread in Yarmouth you take off about 5%. Three of the properties were in a market segment ($300,000-$400,000) with average 75 DOM and a 8 month supply, so you do have to figure that if they don't sell within 30 days, which is statistically unlikely, there will be price reductions which will bring them in line for the Fall market (on the Cape the summer real estate market is slow).
All were in typical older resident condition, which is functional, reasonably well maintained, but dated.
In South Yarmouth, in the desirable Blue Rock Heights area, near but not on Blue Rock Golf Course and near, but not on, Bass River, we saw a 3 BR/2 BA ranch with a nice private backyard and a huge (38'x17') kitchen/family room area. It had hardwood floors throughout, a two car garage and a first floor laundry.
However, as is typical in many homes of people going into assisted living on Cape Cod, it had the tell tale smell of smokers. Though the listing agent insisted no one currently smoked, the smell was strong. According to our ERA Cape Cod Real Estate Cape Cod real estate guru, the smell of tobacco smoke knocks $50,000 off the value in this price range - that wasn't factored into the listing price of $349,000.
In the second home, located in the northside village of Yarmouthport, off Center Street, which is right on the way to Gray's Beach and the Bass Hole, we saw a house with decent curb appeal. With three bedrooms and two baths, a cathedral ceiling with skylight in the kitchen/dining room area the house looked good on paper, a little high at $399,000.
Unfortunately, the spell was broken as soon as we entered the front door and saw what I consider to be a cardinal sin in real estate - they had removed the carpets and installed laminated, 'Pergo" type flooring in the living room, dining room, hallway and bedrooms. Nothing screams "CHEAP CRAP" louder than over 500 square feet of obviously 'NOT REAL HARDWOOD", and, in fact, "NOT EVEN REAL PERGO". For $399,000 put in a real hardwood floor, or put in new carpets or just leave the old carpets and factor their replacement into the price.
Additionally, they had replaced what was probably an old outdated hanging light fixtures in the dining room with an obviously cheap, Big Orange Store quality fixtures. In my opinion if you are not going to do "improvements" to Mom's house right, don't do them, especially in this price range - leave them for the new buyer.
The final property in this price range was a nice enough condo, in King's Way, again in Yarmouthport. This is the development where Heatherwood, one of Yarmouth's three beautiful assisted living facilities is located. It was an "O" unit, good sized (1249 SF), two bedrooms, two and a half baths, overlooking a pond and the golf course, eleven years old, used maybe twenty times for a week or two - but for a golf/retirement community is seemed to have a lot of stairs. There is a good supply of units in the development, most much larger, many in Class A condition -- but at $315,000, it's not bad.
The final house in the assisted living category was of special interest to me - it is in my neighborhood, not on Dancing Brook, two streets down, but still, a close comparable to mine, listed at $238,500. In the Town of Yarmouth there are 27 houses for sale in that price range, DOM 87, 93% List/Sell, and there is a bank owned on the street.
This model is a little bigger than mine (1128 SF), two bedroooms, one and a half baths, irrigation system, vinyl siding and replacement windows. We don't have the half bath yet, and still have the original siding, roof and windows.
I was nervous on this one. We paid $235,000 for our house on Dancing Brook 3 years ago - we bought in a declining market, hoping we bought low enough not to be upside down for too long. If this house goes for $221,800 in it's present condition we're OK for now. In fact, we're up a bit.
So once again we saw, in very simple terms, how the move to assisted living on Cape Cod creates good listings for the local real estate industry.
For more information about any of these listings, and for all your Cape Cod Real Estate needs, call or text Steve at 508.241.3547
On Steve Gregory's web site [Mom's House on the Cape] you'll find Cape Cod Resources for Aging, Assisted Living, Elder Law, Estate Planning and Real Estate. On his Facebook Page you'll find current information on assisted living, elder law, real estate etc., plus Mom's Recipe Box and Dad's Tool Box. Check it out.
TAGS:cape cod real estate,south yarmouth,yarmouth port,heatherwood,assisted living facilities on cape cod,assisted living in yarmouth,assisted living on cape cod
CROSS POSTED AT:MomsCapeHouse
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